League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson calls for election reform

Published: Mar. 25, 2016 at 6:08 PM MST|Updated: Mar. 25, 2016 at 6:33 PM MST
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TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - Monday morning, the House Elections Committee will call Secretary of State Michelle Reagan, swear her in and begin the task of asking her why the Maricopa County election on Tuesday turned fiasco.

In the audience, which promises to be large, will be several representatives of the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson, including the President Shirley Sandelands.

She, along with other members, will ask the state legislature to adopt uniform election standards for all counties, which now make their own rules.

And they will petition Congress to once again re-instate Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which calls for US Justice Department oversight over Arizona Elections.

Section 5 required Arizona and several Southern States to submit election plans to the Justice Department for approval.

"It would have prevented those long lines in Phoenix," Sandelands said. "I'm worried about the general election in November."

The US Supreme court ruled in 2013, that the section was no longer needed because there was no longer discrimination.

Sandelands believes what happened in Maricopa County proves the court was wrong and "it needs to be re-instated."

A bill was introduced in Congress last year to do that but it "didn't get very far," she said.

Also, a petition on the White House website, "We the People", is asking for an investigation into the  "fraud and voter suppression" in the Presidential Preference Election, PPE. Because it received more than 100,000 signatures, the White House will weigh in.

The League is also asking for an open primary rather than the PPE.

"Its really sad," Sandelands said. "We keep making national news about our election procedures."

She points to recent elections where it took nearly two weeks to count the votes or they don't have enough polling places.

"I mean it seems to go against practical sense," she said.

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